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Minimum wage still to be reviewed --- McLeod News --- Page A6
news
A3
Thursday, November 12, 2015 www.guardian.co.tt Guardian
DARREN BAHAW
News Editor
As the two-and-a-
half-year investigation
into Emailgate finally
draws to a close, evidence
so far unearthed seems
to point in one inevitable
direction---the case is
caving in.
Reliable sources last
night admitted that
charges were unlikely to
be proffered against any-
one given the daunting
task of proving beyond a
reasonable doubt details
of a criminal conspiracy
involving the most senior
government officials of
the former People s Part-
nership administration.
"Put it this way, we
can t prove or disprove the
allegations contained in
thread of emails," a source
close to the investigation
confided to the T&T
Guardian.
"We have been able to
corroborate certain events
listed in the emails but
that can t stand on its
own," the source added.
With the assistance of
the United States Depart-
ment of Justice and the
Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigations, local investiga-
tors were able to retrieve
emails from the accounts
of former prime minister
Kamla Persad-Bissessar
(kamlapb1@gmail.com):
former attorney general
Anand Ramlogan
(anand@tstt.com): former
national security minister
Gary Griffith (captain-
garygriffith@hotmail.com:
and former government
minister Dr Suruj Ram-
bachan (surujram-
bachan@hotmail.com) for
the month of September
2012.
Sources said investiga-
tors were unable to match
the emails disclosed in
May 2013 by then oppo-
sition leader, now Prime
Minister, Dr Keith Rowley,
to the emails disclosed by
US email service providers
Google Inc and Hotmail,
even though steps were
taken in 2013 by the US
Department of Justice,
acting on a request from
the police through the
Central Authority Unit, to
preserve the archives of
the four named individ-
uals.
One investigator said
last night that the six-
month delay before the
emails were made public
could have contributed to
this.
Rowley said in 2013 that
he had approached then
president George Maxwell
Richards and then Integri-
ty Commission chairman
Kenneth Gordon, six
months earlier, after he
received the thread of
emails, seeking their inter-
vention.
It was only after he
confirmed that neither
office holder had taken
any action, did he read the
emails in Parliament dur-
ing a debate of no confi-
dence in then prime min-
ister Persad-Bissessar.
Investigators were able
to confirm many details
contained in the emails,
including an Ash Wednes-
day meeting in 2013,
where Director of Public
Prosecutions Roger Gas-
pard, SC, was summoned
to a meeting with Chief
Justice Ivor Archie at the
Hall of Justice, Port-of-
Spain.
Reliable sources said
Gaspard provided a
detailed statement to
investigators about his
meeting with Archie but
the Chief Justice requested
investigators to put their
questions in writing and
he responded to some but
did not affix his signature
to the document.
It was alleged in the
emails that Archie was
being pressured by gov-
ernment ministers to
appoint Gaspard as judge
of the High Court but
Gaspard, who has the final
say on whether criminal
charges can be filed
against someone or not,
never applied for such a
post.
Another claim made in
the emails was to spy on
the DPP to know his every
move.
A June 3, 2013 Special
Branch report, signed by
Supt Gary Gould, then
head of the Special Branch
of the Police Service, also
confirmed that during a
sweep of the DPP s Rich-
mond Street, Port-of-
Spain, head office, evi-
dence was found that
someone was using high-
tech lasers to listen in on
conversations in the main
conference room and one
of the main meeting
rooms.
Gaspard has recused
himself from advising
police investigators in the
matter, since he was a
material witness and
appointed Deputy DPP
Joan Honore-Paul to deal
with it.
Honore-Paul had to
caution Persad-Bissessar
in May 2015, after the
Integrity Commission
concluded its probe, say-
ing the police were far
from done with their
investigations and the case
was still wide open.
She had publicly chas-
tised Persad-Bissessar
after the then prime min-
ister called for an end to
the probe in the face of a
document from the Unit-
ed States Department of
Justice.
Honore-Paul stated
then that it was wrong for
Persad-Bissessar to release
the contents of US DOJ
report, which was provid-
ed to the police, saying
that the treaty under
which this information
was provided prohibited
anyone else other than the
national security parties
probing the matter to use
it. Persad-Bissessar had
used the document during
a motion of no confidence
against Rowley, which
resulted in his suspension
from Parliament over his
claims related to Emailgate
two years earlier.
(See Page A5)
Probers: No way to prove or disprove claims
Emailgate heads for dead end
The Emailgate allegations
were first made public by Dr
Keith Rowley on May 20, 2013,
when he read in Parliament a
thread of 31 email messages
purporting to be a conversation
between four people, whose
email accounts bore striking
similarities to those of the then
prime minister Kamla Persad-
Bissessar, then attorney general
Anand Ramlogan, then national
security advisor Gary Griffith
and then government minister
Suruj Rambachan.
The conversation focused on
the publication of a story in the
T&T Guardian newspaper about
the proclamation of Section 34
of the Administration of Justice
(Indictable Offence)
Amendment Act on August 31,
2012; a conspiracy to murder
investigative reporter Denyse
Renne, who had been pursuing
the story, and the removal of the
Director of Public Prosecutions
Roger Gaspard, SC, from office,
among other illegal and
nefarious acts.
The proclamation of Section
34 sparked widespread outrage
and a spontaneous public
demonstration, as it was viewed
as specially crafted legislation to
benefit United National
Congress financiers Ishwar
Galbaransingh and Steve
Ferguson, who are charged with
a series of criminal offences
relating to the $1.6 billion Piarco
Airport Development Project.
In the face of the outcry, the
then Persad-Bissessar
government convened an
emergency hearing of
Parliament in early September
2013 and repealed the law.
Former High Court judge and
then justice minister Herbert
Volney, who introduced Section
34 to the legislation, which in
effect provided an escape clause
for people charged with serious
crimes, including fraud, to seek a
dismissal if their cases were not
determined within ten years,
was fired.
Galbaransingh and Ferguson
remain wanted in the United
States for fraud offences
relating to the same project but
a High Court judge ruled that the
proper forum for them to face
trial was in T&T. The State never
challenged the High Court ruling.
The Privy Council last month
reserved its decision on a
challenge filed by two of the
Piarco defendants which
challenged the repeal of Section
34 as unconstitutional.
In May 2015, the Integrity
Commission closed its parallel
investigation into the matter,
saying there were "insufficient
grounds" to pursue the probe.
That statement triggered the
sudden resignation of deputy
chairman of the Integrity
Commission Sebastian Ventour,
a retired High Court judge and
fellow commissioner Shelly-
Anne Lalchan.
Ventour went on to criticise
the commission's chairman
Zainool Hosein, a retired Appeal
Court judge, saying the
statement issued by the body
was incorrect.
He said the Emailgate
investigation and the
information the commission
received involved just Persad-
Bissessar and Ramlogan but
said nothing about the other
individuals (Griffith and
Rambachan) also under
investigation.
Deputy Commissioner of
Police Glenn Hackett, who is
overseeing the police probe into
the matter, said yesterday that
the investigators received the
information from Hotmail in
September and they were
currently perusing the
voluminous data.
EMAILGATE HISTORY
Ishwar Galbaransingh Steve Ferguson
Kenneth Gordon
George Maxwell Richards